Stree 2: Story Behind The Rumoured Haunted Gateway, Kati Ghati In Shraddha Kapoor Starrer

Stree 2: The Shraddha Kapoor-Rajkummar Rao-led horror-comedy movie has become one of the highest-grossing Bollywood movies ever. With a balance of eerie scenes with relaxing humour, the film is a sequel to the 2018 movie. The movie narrates the tale of the small village of Chanderi. Legend has it that several locations shown in the film have lesser-known backstories.

Where is Chanderi located?

Chanderi is a real-life location situated in Madhya Pradesh’s Ashoknagar district. The gateway to the town is known as Kati Ghati, which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city and serves as an entrance. As per reports, it is carved out of a massive rock on the hillside which stands 10 meters tall and 25 meters wide. As per swatijain.com, the gate has inscriptions in Devnagiri and Nashq script explaining that Kati Ghati was commissioned by Jiman Khan, the son of Sher Khan, who was the governor of Chanderi at the time, in 1480 CE.  

What is the backstory behind Kati Ghati?

In the climax of both parts of Stree, the protagonists Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao reunite for final goodbyes at the entrance gate of the Chanderi town. This gateway is filmed at the location of Kati Ghati. As per urban legend Sultan Ghiyasuddin Khilji of Malwa announced a sudden trip to Chanderi. To facilitate his visit, a gate had to be built at the entrance of the town. Jiman Khan was tasked with getting a gateway made for the Sultan in just one night. Perplexed by the possibility of achieving such a mammoth task within a day, Khan offered a lucrative reward to anyone who could deliver.

Out of 100s present, only 1 mason decided to take up the challenge and much to everyone's surprise even completed it. Jiman Khan amongst others was astonished to see the gate built overnight. However, not keeping his word Khan avoided giving the reward to the mason by making an excuse that the gate lacked a door which would compromise on the Sultan's safety. Hurt by his unfulifled promise, the mason is said to have taken his life on that very spot. A grave, also shown in the movie, is said to be of the mason. However, another version of the story suggests that it was Babar's army who cut through the hill to create a passage to secure entrance into Chanderi. Nevertheless, the locations shown in Stree 2 have legendary back stories.

Stree 2 writer says the villain in the movie represents patriarchy

In an interview with PTI, Niren Bhatt argued “Stree is the symbol of matriarchy, she is not a witch. Bhediya is the protector of the forests. We have designed these characters in a certain way. We are not talking about hocus pocus or spirits out of the blue." While Stree revolved around a female ghost, who was wronged in her mortal life, its follow-up focuses on a headless villain called Sarkata with a connection to the eponymous character.

He added, “Some people complain that there is a lot of humour but less horror or vice versa but these are not horror films where actual ghosts are haunting people. All our ghosts are fallacies of our society. Sarkata is the most warped form of patriarchy." Directed by Amar Kaushik, the new film brings back the original star cast of Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Abhishek Banerjee, Pankaj Tripathi, and Aparshakti Khurana.

(With inputs from PTI)